Veteran Isle of Man TT racer Shaun Harris is the new King of Ruapuna after blasting accomplished rivals into the trackside weeds in the second round of the New Zealand road racing motorcycling championships near Christchurch yesterday.
The irrepressible New Plymouth rider deposed Kawerau international Tony Rees as the superbike championship
leader with two great wins.
He also easily won both Formula 2 championship races and both 600cc production races in a performance which suggests he is headed for the best season of his long career.
"I couldn't ask for a better day," Harris said. "The Suzukis were fantastic and my team was just great."
Harris rides with the number 37 on his bike - the age of his father when he died, and the age he is now.
He hopes to return to the Isle of Man this year with strong Suzuki support.
This will be his ninth, and probably last, appearance in the historic TT races. He wants to defend the 750cc Production TT championship he won last year and maybe even push his own production lap record up a notch or two.
Harris was at the top of his form throughout yesterday, but saved his best ride until last on the Suzuki GSXR 1000 in the second of the superbike races. He was up against Rees, who was determined to end on a high note.
For nine laps they circled at breakneck speed, but there was no way past for Rees and his Yamaha R1.
It just was not Rees' day. He crashed in practice on his production bike and then a bracket securing his coil snapped while he was leading the opening superbike race. A fuse blew and his bike stopped.
That race only lasted four laps. It was red-flagged when defending champion Dean Fulton, of Auckland, crashed heavily. He was not seriously hurt, but left the track in an ambulance and took no further part.
Rees started from the back of the grid in the restart and weaved through brilliantly to take the win from local hero Andrew Stroud on a standard production Suzuki GSXR 1000.
But when the points from the two parts of the interrupted race were added together, Harris was the overall winner.
Stroud ended up second-highest superbike points scorer on the production bike, as well as winning both open production races on the same machine.
- NZPA
